What an odd moment in the history of the Sharks’ march to almost greatness:

This time they finally met reasonable playoff expectations (huzzah!), but they also reached the end of the line for their quixotic run as the NHL’s most promising team.

Because, given the time, place and the Sharks’ long buildup to this moment, this was the Sharks’ best shot at a Stanley Cup title.

Right here, and now gone.

Everything this franchise has done for the past five years — trading picks, adding giant contracts, switching coaches — pointed to cashing it all this spring.

Oops. Turns out the younger, faster, deeper Chicago Blackhawks had an even better shot at it.

So there’s nothing bitter about the Sharks’ four-game Western Conference finals sweep-o-rama experience. The Sharks achieved a lot this postseason, were neck-and-neck with the Blackhawks in every meeting except Game 2, and will not need to provide franchise-wide acts of contrition in the aftermath.

Joe Pavelski dominated the early playoff rounds. Patrick Marleau took over the last series. Joe Thornton, Evgeni Nabokov, Ryane Clowe, Devin Setoguchi and Dan Boyle all had their moments.

The Sharks did the best they could, which by itself signifies the end of an era for a franchise that had become famous for the opposite.

However, when it is universally acknowledged that you did your best and lost, you avoid the catcalls, but you’re also part of a broader reality.

If the Sharks couldn’t have been expected to do any better than this, how can anybody expect them to do any better in the future?

The result: They’re a second- or third-tier team, which is maybe what they really have been all along.

They’re the San Diego Chargers now, not the New Orleans Saints or New England Patriots.

It’s not just that the Blackhawks were clearly better and are so much younger than the Sharks. It’s that the Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes are young, rising teams, too.

And it’s not that the Sharks have to blow up their talented roster after once again gaining the No. 1 seed in the West.

It’s that Marleau is an unrestricted free agent whose final-week surge could prime the market for a huge offer (from L.A.?) the Sharks might not be able to match.

It’s that Nabokov is an unrestricted free agent, with a value to the franchise that is difficult to fully quantify or evaluate.

It’s that, even if the Sharks could find a way to re-sign both, maybe the Sharks shouldn’t be committing more big future salaries to players in their early and mid-30s.

It’s that Pavelski, 25, and Devin Setoguchi, 23, are restricted free agents and that Pavelski, specifically, could be due a long-term deal at something close to $5 million a year.

It’s that Thornton and Marleau are 30, Boyle and Nabokov are 34, captain Rob Blake is 40 and might retire, and Dany Heatley is 29.

It’s all of that, and a couple dozen other stray things, that tell us that this era of Sharkdom came to a close in Chicago over the weekend.

This was the era of getting established as a Western power, landing Thornton in 2005, adding major pieces such as Boyle and Heatley, rising to the top of the season standings and getting several prime whacks at the Cup.

This era was always about adding, adding, hiring Todd McLellan to teach the Detroit way, adding more, adding salary, aiming for that Cup run, just waiting for that young talent to fully mature “…

And that era is over.

This summer, the Sharks are more likely to lose core pieces than to add a headliner or two.

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if there is a return to mostly building from within, starting with a more prominent role for Logan Couture.

Of course, this doesn’t mean the Sharks can’t win a Stanley Cup in the next few years or so.

These things can be wildly unpredictable, as the Sharks know better than anybody.

But they have had their best shot, took their best shot, and now they move on to something that could be very, very different.

Violent police encounters in California last year led to the deaths of 157 people and six officers, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday in a report that provides the first statewide tally on police use-of-force incidents.